I will get a (very!) small commission at no extra cost to you, which helps me support this site: You can order your DNA test from any of these companies to get started with DNA matches by using any of the following links. The top companies for finding lots of DNA matches are as follows: Ancestry DNA, 23andMe, My Heritage DNA, and Family Tree DNA. There are four main companies that I highly recommend for finding DNA matches. What are the best DNA matching sites?ĭo you think you’d like to find DNA matches? I’m very excited! As I mentioned before, DNA matches are really a lot of fun to work with. If there is a match, you will gain a new DNA match on your list. It’s important to note that as your DNA testing company receives more DNA samples from new customers, they will compare your DNA with their new samples. Most of the people further down on our DNA list are related to us in some way, but in order to verify the relationship we will need to do genealogical research.
Each autosomal DNA testing company offers a list of DNA matches (see below in this post for recommended companies) This is an example of DNA matches from my Ancestry DNA results. DNA matches are very accurate, especially for relatively close relatives (i.e. The DNA testing company will count the number of matching DNA segments and add up number of the centimorgans, which is a unit of measurement for measuring genetic distance, that make up the DNA segments in order to estimate the relationship between the two individuals.īelow, you can see an example of my DNA match list from Ancestry DNA.
#What do my dna matches mean software#
When the DNA testing company’s software identifies segments that match between two people, we say that they are DNA matches. Part of this process of preparing our DNA results includes comparing our DNA to the DNA of other customers in order to identify identical DNA segments. When we submit our DNA samples to DNA testing companies for genotyping, they use advanced technology to determine our genetic makeup. These clumps of DNA are called “ DNA segments”. The same occurs with DNA we inherit from our father.Įven though half of our parents’ DNA is inherited in relatively random fashion through a process called recombination, large clumps of DNA are passed down intact for several generations. The 50% of our DNA that we inherit from our mother is made up of half of our mother’s DNA and is passed down on the maternal copy each autosomal chromosome. One copy is the maternal copy, and the other copy is the paternal copy.Įach person inherits 50% of their DNA from their mother and 50% of their DNA from their father.